Ruth Dow, age 15, of Baltimore, Md., for her question:

WHO ORIGINATED SEMANTICS?

Semantics in logic is the study of the conditions under which signs and symbols, including words, may be said to be meaningful. It also is the study of how human behavior is affected by words, whether spoken by others or to oneself in thought.

In the study of languages, semantics used to mean the historic. study of changes in the meaning of words.

Modern semantics originated in the early 10s in what an English philosopher, Lady Viola Welby, called "significs." She described it as "the science of meaning or the study of significance, provided sufficient recognition is given to its practical aspects as a method of mind."

Welby felt that a proper study of meaning should start with the study of what words are about, namely, experience.

Contributing insights into the field of semantics were C.K. Ogden, a British psychologist, I.A. Richards, an English literary critic, P.W. Bridgman, an American physicist, and Alfred Korzybski, a Polish American scientist.